Chapter 1124: God-Slaying Speculations, Audit Issues

The Divine Grace Aiboke received was not as great as Xia Duo's; it was entirely a matter of "performance." The two chatted for a while about the topic of Divine Grace, then returned to the Tower of Time together.

By now, the Magic Net environment outside the Tower of Time had been completely restored, and the Code Sculpture was nearly finished.

As for the territory residents' familiarity with the laws regarding land grants, based on Xia Duo's understanding of Laidun, it should be about ready, enough for them to become the key nodes for constructing the Order Cycle at the land grant ceremony.

The "Yuanfang," carrying the northern Bards, had also arrived at Daxia Territory. Now, the only thing missing for the land grant ceremony was the final completion of Code Plaza.

From the end of the exploration of the Inosen Mage Tower ruins until now, over a month had passed. Xia Duo had first been busy with a comprehensive inspection of the Watchtower and maintenance of the Blazing Sun Array, and afterwards, he was busy restoring the Magic Net and designing and crafting the Code Sculpture.

Busy until now, Xia Duo could finally relax for a few days.

However, relaxing did not mean doing nothing; it just meant the previous sense of urgency was gone, and things had become much more composed and leisurely.

Tower of Time, Material Department.

Xia Duo's sudden arrival made Saixili hurriedly put down the work in her hands and stand up to welcome him, "My Lord, why have you come?"

"Just passing by to take a look, no need for formalities."

While signaling Saixili to sit first, Xia Duo picked up a document on her desk, glanced at it, put it back down, and only then asked, "Has the Ming Shui Chamber of Commerce sent anyone?"

"Not yet."

"Not yet?"

Xia Duo could not help but frown. He had been quite busy during this period and had not paid attention to this matter, but he remembered very clearly that he had notified the Ming Shui Chamber of Commerce over ten days ago to send someone over to discuss the new magic material procurement agreement for the Tower of Time.

He had not expected that after so many days, the Ming Shui Chamber of Commerce still had not sent anyone.

"Have you contacted Saituosi? Did he give any reason on his end?" Xia Duo asked.

"I have contacted him. Saituosi said he only received orders regarding the promotion of the new currency, and no orders regarding the new procurement agreement, but—"

Speaking to this point, Saixili suddenly hesitated, then lowered her voice and whispered, "A few days ago, Saituosi contacted me and said some things about not being happy staying at the Ming Shui Chamber of Commerce; it seems he has the intention to join Savile Territory."

"And how did you reply to him?"

"How could I make a decision on such a matter? I reported it to Niya, and Niya said to act as if I hadn't heard it. I suspect something might have happened in Seventon that affected Saituosi."

Accidents, accidents again. What Xia Duo found most annoying right now were accidents. What kind of accident could happen in Seventon? President Zhenna was clearly a Great Arcanist; unless she herself met with an accident, even if there were a massive upheaval within the Ming Shui Chamber of Commerce, she could easily suppress it.

But what kind of accident could a Great Arcanist meet with?

Xia Duo immediately associated this with the content about the appearance of a new god that he had "inadvertently overheard" from the Sending between her and Saide when he last saw Zhenna in Seventon.

Could it be related to the new god?

Could it be that she went to the Outer Planes like Master Bailun, got delayed by something, and hasn't returned?

That would truly be very interesting!

Could it be that Zhenna gathered a group of people to go god-slaying, and then failed?

The probability of this situation occurring was extremely low—not that the probability of a failed god-slaying was low, but that the act of god-slaying itself was unlikely to happen.

After obtaining the Ascension Ritual Book, Xia Duo understood that gods—at least those who achieved godhood through the Ascension Ritual—did not have things like divinity that could be plundered; killing them might result in not even getting a single hair in the end.

Of course, if the Order Force that the god-slayer relied on for Ascension conflicted with a certain god, then even if there was nothing to plunder, the demise of the target god itself could be considered a major gain.

Could the new god that Zhenna and Saide mentioned in their Sending be related to currency? Or to commerce, trade, or even a domain that Zhenna's other Ascension allies cared about?

Thinking back to how Niya said the Princess's avatar would leave soon after meeting the Princess in Seventon not long ago, could the Princess be involved in this as well?

If the Princess were involved, Bailun would likely be involved; if Bailun were involved, then Iolum might also be involved, or even Kangjienio.

But when meeting those two at the beginning of the month, there were no signs of anything abnormal!

Or is it that those two can already treat god-slaying as a common occurrence, not showing even the slightest hint of it?

This is obviously quite impossible.

For a moment, Xia Duo thought of many, many things. What he least wanted to see was a situation where, as soon as a new god appeared, a large group of god-slayers would swarm up, especially with gods who had already achieved godhood participating.

This would mean that the chances for latecomers to succeed in Ascension would become smaller and smaller, until they disappeared.

Sure enough, becoming a god is not the most ideal upgrade path for an Arcanist; the slots are limited, and even if one could successfully ascend, one would face infinite internal competition and the disadvantageous situation of suppressing those who come after in the future.

"My Lord? My Lord?"

Saixili's voice interrupted Xia Duo's thoughts. Fortunately, from the moment he obtained the Ascension Ritual Book and learned the inside story of Ascension, Ascension was no longer his primary option for the future.

Order Gods face the eternal competition of Order Force; in endless ages, there is never a lack of challengers. Although Chaos Gods do not have these worries, their very existence implies major trouble and are targets that people, countries, and gods who believe in order, like Xia Duo, must encircle and suppress.

Once one becomes a Chaos God, one must live in darkness for the rest of one's life, accompanied by slaughter and betrayal; it is simply not a life for a person.

"I understand. Regarding Saituosi, you don't need to deliberately reply to anything; just act as if this matter never happened. I will contact the Ming Shui Chamber of Commerce again. You should continue to refine the new procurement agreement and the negotiation plan on your end; perhaps in a few days, the Ming Shui Chamber of Commerce will send someone."

"Yes."

"Then you continue with your work; I won't disturb you."

After leaving the Material Department, Xia Duo turned and ducked into the Audit Department next door. This newly established department was nominally affiliated with the Material Department and managed by Saixili.

But in reality, the Audit Department had always been independently managed by the stewards sent by the four chambers of commerce: Hans, Silaiwen, Laidun, and the Golden Chamber of Commerce from Savile Territory.

These chamber of commerce stewards were extremely skilled at numerical work; being responsible for specialized audit work in the Tower of Time was like a fish in water for them.

Of course, since these stewards were ordinary people and did not understand Magic, when it came to matters involving Magic, it was very easy for them to be deceived.

And this was the main reason for Xia Duo's visit this time.

"My Lord, these are all the material subsidy application records for all private research labs in the Tower of Time over the past half year."

"Hmm." Xia Duo nodded, then began to flip through them one by one.

The main work of the Audit Department was to audit problems related to numbers in various documents and records; as for other aspects, Xia Duo was not too worried.

Although it was in a Mage Tower, most documents and records containing numbers were not much different from those outside; they were mostly common-sense issues, just checking if the numbers before and after matched and if anyone had deliberately concealed anything.

But for the material subsidy applications of each private research lab, there were many tricks involved here. These ordinary people in the Audit Department might be proficient in mathematics and could discover contradictions in the numbers.

But their lack of understanding of Magic made it easy for those private research labs to fool them, using various incomprehensible pretexts to extract subsidies.

Although the Tower of Time had a cap on the monthly subsidy for each private research lab, one couldn't let people hit that cap every single time!

Isn't this just a long-term drain on the resources of the Tower of Time!